There's a long list of reasons why you should keep your vehicle's tires properly inflated—from better mileage to safer handling. Goodyear has made this motorist's chore extra easy with its new Air Maintenance Technology system, which automatically keeps a tire at the proper PSI using a self-contained passive pump.

Auto-inflation systems for tires have existed for years now, but they usually involve complicated valves and tubing to connect each tire to a pump in the vehicle itself. Goodyear's solution is far more elegant, using an internal regulator that automatically opens, when tire pressure is low, to let air in to a pumping tube. As the tire rolls and is deformed, the air inside this tube is squeezed into the tire's main cavity, pumping it back up. Because the system is completely self-contained, there's less risk of the components being damaged, and fewer ways for the mechanism to fail.

While Goodyear isn't announcing pricing or availability details for the new tires just yet, the company will be demonstrating the technology at the 2012 Internationale Automobil-Ausstellung Commercial Vehicle Show in Germany, and presumably at other upcoming auto shows around the world.